Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

I have a question regarding publishing a book. I collect baseball cards and write a blog pooroldbaseballcards.com. It centers around all those baseball cards that have been put through bicycle spokes, written on or otherwise mangled. It's all about the beauty of the card. Can I self-publish a coffee table book along the same lines as my blog? Do I have legal issues when it comes to publishing photos of the cards themselves? I know some baseball card companies are still around (Topps) but many of the cards are from companies long gone. Thanks for any advice you can provide.


Asked on 12/20/11, 1:10 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Bryan Whipple Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law

My advice would be to tread with caution. While copyrights do expire, and the rights become public domain, this is not coterminous with the company going out of business. With sports cards, someone is pretty likely acquiring and maintaining the copyrights as the original publishers fall by the wayside. Since you are thinking of self-publishing, you won't have an editor and publisher to handle researching copyright status and getting releases where needed, so I strongly recommend developing contacts with one or more copyright attorneys with whom you can develop a working relationship. They may not charge you that much and your issues may be relatively simple compared with what to do with a garage full of newly-printed books you can't sell because of infringement suit threats.

Read more
Answered on 12/20/11, 5:01 pm


Related Questions & Answers

More Intellectual Property questions and answers in California